Page 66 of Raze
Wait. What?
“And once I’m done with you, you can go back to being Raegan when I turn you in to GE.”
Oh. Fuck no. I know this is bad. Really bad. I can barely get any words from my brain to my mouth, let alone get my body to respond to me right now. Wake up, stupid body!
And Iknewhe was tied to GE. But where does he fit in with them?He must be higher than a goon if he was at the mayor’s house.
Ken chuckles. “A goon? That’s cute.”
Did I say that aloud?No, he said something earlier about renaming people too. As if he knows I call him Ken.
I drag my head up so I can see his face more clearly. He’s grinning at me.
“That’s right. I can hear everything you’re thinking.”
Shit.Of course, now all the things Ishouldn’tlet him know about all compete to jump to the forefront of my mind.
“Yes, I know Joe is dead. And I suspected it was you, but it’s good to know I was right.”
No, no, no. Think of nothing. Or vomiting in his face.
“Hm. Yes. You’ve thought about Jackson and Aiden before. I’ll look into them. Who’s Old Red? Ah, a firehouse?”
Panic slips through my veins as he easily plucks information from my head. I squeeze my eyes shut, hoping that might somehow block him out.Please, no.
“Too much?” He laughs and straightens in his position between my knees. “That was fun, but we have plenty of time to catch up later.”
His hand pinches my jaw hard enough to make me cry out, and then his tongue shoves back into my mouth. I try to fight against him, but he clearly has the advantage over me now. I fight to block out what he’s doing and focus instead on calling my gift. I reach for it, and then his hand grabs my tit roughly, and it snaps my concentration.
He ends the sloppy kiss, and I spit him out again. Bile creeps upmy throat, and I don’t try to keep it down. Memories of my ex and his friends resurface unbidden, bringing me right back to that small apartment. Of being used and tossed aside like an object.
“Don’t. Touch. Me,” I spit out between heavy breaths.
Ken’s pawing at my shirt and trying to move it up and out of the way so he doesn’t see when something floats down behind him.
But I do.
I laugh uncontrollably. At least I can do that. I may not be able to form words well enough, but I can laugh like a fucking hyena right now. My body shakes with the laughter, or maybe as a side effect of the drugs, and it’s enough that he stops what he’s doing to look at me with confusion.
“Why are you laughing?”
I keep laughing while looking right at the small white paper crane on the floor at his feet. “Dead. So. Dead.”
His face scrunches with more confusion. Something slices through the binds at my hands and feet without a sound. I grab the rope in my hands and then smile at Ken. He hasn’t noticed I’m free yet, but it’s not like that’s going to do me a load of good while my body is still sluggish.
There’s a scuffing noise from a room off the living area, and Ken spins around to look. I get up slowly, only because my body doesn’t let me move as much as I want to, then step on the chair and launch myself at his back. I fall into him, knocking us both down, but I’m able to get the rope around his throat.
I get up enough to kneel on his spine while leaning back, forcing his head up.
Jackson enters the room steadily, his boots taking their time as he crosses the floor to us. He stops just in front of Ken and pauses to look me over. Then he smiles at me, but it’s cold and void of anything human.
He’spissed.
My body shivers involuntarily at his smile. I know it’s aimed at Ken, not me, but it’s terrifying all the same.
“Hold him still for me, little one,” his husky voice commands. He slides a knife out from under his hoodie and crouches before Ken. Even in that position, he still has to look down to see Ken’s face, where it’s angled up from the ground. He looks menacing as his body shadows over Ken’s while he prepares to mete out his punishment.
Jackson grips Ken’s cheeks in an imitation of what that man had just done to me. I can feel his body tremble with the effort not to open his mouth. Jack just keeps smiling and then lays the blade against his cheekbone with the sharp point angling into his eye.
